A former mayor has been cleared of committing a sex act while sunbathing naked but is still banned from going into his garden without clothes on.

Keith Brookes, 67, was cleared of committing a sex act in front of other people and children when he was spotted by a neighbour.

The former mayor of Cleethorpes has been a naturist for 30 years and regularly enjoys sunbathing in his garden while nude.

But when he was accused of outraging public decency by committing a sex act he and his family found the accusations ‘devastating’ and he was subsequently suspended from the Conservative party.

Councillor Brookes appeared at Grimsby Crown Court this week where Judge Tremberg said he was of ‘positive good character’ and had spent much of his adult life serving the community on a voluntary basis.

She told him: ‘You took inadequate steps to ensure that you could not be seen.’

Judge Tremberg added that Councillor Brookes had been convicted of no offence and had not admitted, or been found guilty of, committing a sex act in his garden.

Jeremy Evans, for the prosecution, said neighbours were holding a barbecue with friends and two children could see that Councillor Brookes was sunbathing naked in his back garden and was asleep.

He was later seen by an adult looking over a fence applying sun lotion ‘but also to the area of his genitals’.